Getting Dollars In Your Mailbox Through Mail Order
<p align="Justify">Getting Dollars In Your Mailbox Through Mail Order!
Welcome to the World of Mail Order!
Hundreds, even thousands, of dollars can come to you through the
mail, every day, when you build up a successful mail-order
business, and we're going to show you how to do it! You don't
need complicated equipment, a lot of capital, or an expensive
office to start with. But you do need determination, a place
to work (your home will do fine for a beginning), and a good
product.
Before you begin to sell anything, take a moment to think about
the possibilities of mail order. In order to hit the real
jackpot in terms of money, your mail order business, whatever it
is that you will eventually sell, must be well planned, timely,
and draw lots of repeat business. You are going to have to look
at what other mail order operators are selling, to see what
kinds of products sell well, week after week, in the kinds of
publications that you too are thinking of running ads in. And
don't forget to check back issue of these same publications
check out which ads stopped running, which products flopped!
Remember that the better prepared you are before you actually
place your first ad, the better able you will be to cope with
buying, selling, shipping and all the other new
responsibilities you will have. But don't let all this talk of
responsibility scare you away - mail order is still one of the
least complicated ways to get set on the road to financial
independence, and possibly great wealth!
|Let's Tackle First Things First!
If you're contemplating starting a mail-order business, the
first thing you have to decide is what you're going to sell.
both as to general category, and then specifically. Your wife's
home-made candy; your own greenhouse-raised plants; a small
useful "novelty" item; racing tips; or what? Try and ask
yourself a few questions about what you intend to sell. Is it
exclusive? Or can your prospective customers get the same thing
more easily right at their neighborhood store? Is it really
appealing, can you point out something (or many things) about it
that make it something the customer's just gotta have? And does
it have a really sufficient mark-up (of which more hereafter).
More mail-order failures can be traced to the lack of the right
product than any other source. Sure it's important to promote
it right, write appealing copy, be efficient in shipping, follow
up the sale, etc, etc., but if you haven't got what the people
want, nothing else will help.
So don't blunder into the business, plan it out. Think about
whether you have some special expertise which you can bring to
bear in the selection of what you're going to sell. Always try
to fill a need. Try to appeal to basic human instincts,
acquisitiveness, curiosity, avarice, sexuality, greed, and so
on. But appeal subtly, on the subconscious level, don't let'em
know you know what makes'em tick. You've got to be a sort of
amateur psychologist, to have a high percentage of successful
items, or else you must just somehow sense what will sell.
|Two Great Ideas You Can Use!
If you haven't a specific field in mind, here are two
suggestions for you. The first is to sell information, or to
put it another way, "sell paper". Think up some information you
think many people would like to know, and try and assemble it
for them in a handy form, using your own knowledge, or research
you can do in books at your public library. For instance, a
list of hotels, by city and state, which agree to accept guests
with pets - something very useful to animal-livers traveling
with their dogs and getting turned away by the majority of
motels they try to stop at.
The second is how you can find the one really special, really
"cute" and exciting item that you can promote the hell out of
and (we hope) sell tens of thousands of. In this area of
mail-order, fortunes can be made overnight, if you "know how to
pick 'em". It's a knack, a "feel", and it's usually inborn, and
not a product of training. You may have it, and not know it!
If you are one of those people who can sense the needs or
desires of a large group, then before long you may locate an
item that can bring you real money!
How you can find your own special "hot item" before the public
has even seen it anywhere is by attending trade shows, given
every year, and sometimes twice a year, in major cities. New
York, Chicago and San Francisco are the biggest centers, but
local ones appear also in Miami, Houston, New Orleans, and many
other cities.
You can find out about these shows by calling your local
convention bureau or exhibition hall, and enquiring about their
schedule for the year. Very big hotels with exhibition
facilities sometimes host them too. Or you can write to major
exhibition managers and get their schedule for the next twelve
months or more.
|Ad or Brochure - Which Way for You?
To start a mail-order business, we would suggest placing small
display ads at first, rather than creating expensive mailing
pieces and sending them out to a rented list. To create, print,
insert and mail brochures is a costly and very skilled affair,
and is not usually undertaken by beginners. Also it is
generally necessary that the item(s) offered be relatively
high-priced to assure a profitable rate of return - what with
today's high cost of postage, not to mention paper and printing.
A single $1.95 item, no matter how saleable, could never be
profitable in a mailing - by the time you add up the cost of
printing and postage you find there is nothing left for you!
But if it is well-chosen, it could be a smash hit in a small ad,
and make a lot of money for you, because, of course, if it works
for you in one magazine very well, the chances are very good
(though not certain) that it will be at least profitable, even
if not as profitable, in other media.
|Markup, Markup, You Gotta Have the Markup!
Other than an unsuitable product, or one that people just don't
want, the biggest other mistake you must avoid is having
insufficient markup. You cannot afford to buy the same product
that a retailer does, and expect to survive. Many retailers can
do perfectly well with an average markup of 100% over cost, that
is they buy the merchandise at 50% of its retail price, or, to
look at it another way, they sell at twice the net cost to them
(this is a very rough approximation, retailers' margins vary all
over the lot depending on the line of business they're in; for
instance, grocery supermarkets operate on far less gross markup
than that).
But you cannot exist in mail-order with a two-times-cost mark-up
(potentially you might be be able to with a very high-ticket item
sellingfor $500, but we're not concerned with that here). You
need at least a three-times cost multiple, and, if you can get
it, four-, five-, six- or even ten-times is far far better. The
higher your markup - the greater your chance of success. Your
costs are far higher than a retailer's. Advertising space cost
is your biggest expense, and then you have to handle each order
individually, pack it for shipping, provide a carton, take it to
the post office, etc., as well as pay your general overhead
expenses. Always remember that the higher the multiple, the
smaller the number of items you have to sell to make an ad
profitable.
|Now to Prepare Your First Ad
You've chosen your "perfect product" for your first mail-order
offering, and decided on the price you're asking, and now you
are faced with making an ad! Unless you are a writer/artist,
this is a formidable obstacle. But it can be surmounted. We
don't suggest you call a big advertising agency. In short, they
don't want you (you won't be spending enough), and you don't
want them (you wouldn't be able to afford their production
charges!). If you're handy with words, try writing the ad after
all the usual 1", 2" or 3" mailorder ad only contains 50 or 100
words of copy (look at what others are doing in your favorite
magazine) - and show it to some friends to get some criticism
and ideas. If you get a thumbs-down reaction from your test
audience, (or if you don't really feel that you want to tackle
the writing in the first place), locate a copywriter to help you
through the classified columns of your local newspaper. Place a
very short minimum-space ad, something like this:
in the "Help Wanted" section. You'll get plenty of calls, and
this will enable you to select someone with whom you're
compatible, and who won't charge you an arm and a leg!
|Appearance and Presentation Are All-Important!
The "look" of your ad is very important. Don't neglect it. Not
only the picture of the product, whether that be a photograph or
a drawing, but also the layout, choice and weight of typefaces
used, and so on. Unless you are an expert, don't try doing it
yourself . . you need a professional. It is simple to find
one. Just proceed as above for the copywriter, but place an ad
for an art director. He will take your basic thoughts, and
transform them almost magically, into a really "pro"-looking ad.
He'll be able to "spec" the type for you, and recommend a
typesetter who can set it for you (or he may quote you a flat
price for preparing the ad which includes the type).
I hope there's enough here to have whetted your appetite for a
go at the fascinating world of mail-order. If you want
additional information, consult a full-length book on the
subject.
Good luck!
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